Immediately different from most of the music I’m currently listening to, Spectrals’ Bad Penny hits me like a ton of bricks in such a great way. Instantly detected is the amount of influence from 60′s doo-wop blended with garage rock that graces this album and inspires me to blog about it. British artist, Louis Jones is Spectrals and has been recording under said alias since the 2009 time period when Best Coast started releasing her singles. Both have that surf guitar reverb sound that attracted people so much and started that wave of beach rock that Best Coast and Wavves triumphed on. However, Spectrals seems to go a little unnoticed. Eaily listenable, clocking in under 30 minutes, this album is perfect for a short car trip with the windows down and the sun in your face. It’s one of the those records you have to bob your head too, especially on main tracks like, “Get a Grip” or “Big Baby”. The doo-wop is completely noticeable but he’s basically remade another indie sub genre (like it needs anymore), but the lo-fi, fuzzy guitars take it to a whole other level of great music. It’s hard to blend genres that have no right being blended, but Jones does it in a manner that allows the listener to soothe into it, while some songs are more prominently garage rock and others more doo-wop (definitely shown on “Many Happy Returns”). According to last.fm, he is mostly similar to artists like Veronica Falls, Fair Ohs and Big Troubles–which all completely makes sense–that beachy guitar fuzz plays a major factor in the album, but it’s such a branched off genre that to add him to that list cuts him off from the nostalgic 60′s beach, doo-wop genre that he so brilliantly put together. But, listen to him, make your own opinion, did he make it possible for two completely opposite genres to converge to create a head jingly album?
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